The invention herein relates to apparatus for guiding cable or rod into a conduit, for example, conduit into which a telephone cable is to be inserted. In practice a supply of telephone cable or the like is located at a manhole and the equipment for pulling the cable through the conduit is located at a remote manhole, the conduit through which the cable is to be pulled extending between the two manholes. The cable pulling apparatus is comprised of a length of rod wound on a reel with means for feeding the rod into the conduit until the end of the rod emerges from the conduit at the manhole where the supply of telephone cable, also usually wound on reels, is located. The end of the telephone cable is secured to the end of the rod and the rod is retrieved by the apparatus at the remote manhole to pull the telephone cable through the conduit. Apparatus for feeding the rod into the conduit and retrieving it is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,163 to Prange, dated June 3, 1975.
Preferably the rod feeding and retrieving apparatus will be permanently mounted on a vehicle for ease of transport from site to site although this may not always be the case. In any event it is not always possible to locate the vehicle or the rod feeding and retrieving equipment close to end of the telephone cable conduit into which the rod is to be fed in which case a flexible guide conduit is used which extends between the end of the telephone cable conduit and the rod feeding and retrieving equipment, to guide the end of the rod in its transit between the equipment and the telephone cable conduit. Conventionally, this guide conduit is made of flexible material to permit any bends which may be necessary between the feeding and retrieving equipment and the telephone cable conduit.
A problem arises, however, in that the end of the guide conduit near the rod feeding and retrieving equipment must be mounted in some fixed relationship with respect thereto. Conventionally, in prior art equipment it is mounted at the point where the end of the rod emerges from the rod feeding equipment. This is not satisfactory, however, since it is desirable that provision be made for securing and replacing a mandrel or guide tool to the end of the rod to facilitate its passage through the conduit. These tools are of significant lengths and are frequently removed and replaced so it is desirable that some considerable distance be left between the end of the rod where it emerges from the rod feeding equipment and the end of the guide conduit. Also when the telephone cable is pulled through the conduit, space must be provided to disconnect the cable from the end of the guide tool or rod.